Anastasia Stark
by Charlie'sLostVampire
Summary: Kids. Tony Stark swore he'd never have them. But Pepper somehow managed to change his mind... Enjoy, and remember to review!
1. Nervousness

Tony Stark didn't get nervous. What did he have to ever be nervous about? He was _Tony Stark._

Okay, so, maybe he did get nervous a few times. Like, once or twice. But that hardly counted.

One of the times he'd been nervous in specific was a few months after he and Pepper had started dating. As much as he knew she was as tough as nails and could defend herself if the situation called for it, Tony still had a tendency to worry about his girlfriend. If there was ever a reason that made him regret, even in the slightest, that he'd told the world he was Iron Man, it was the danger it put the people he cared about in. _Especially_ Pepper. After all; if you want kick the man in the suit where it hurts most, who better to target than his pretty little girlfriend?

None of them had seen it coming. It had started off as a simple day. Pepper had meetings with the board, and Tony was at home, working on the suit. It was around 2:00 p.m. that he got the frantic call informing him that there had been a shooting at SI. The person calling informed him all too slowly that there hadn't been any casualties. In fact, no one else had even been harmed; no one but one person.

The woman had barely finished saying, "Miss Virginia Potts," before he was out the door.

As it turned out, a certain Angelica Bonquise had been discharged a few weeks beforehand from the mental institution she'd been in for years ever since she picked the lock to Tony's Malibu home and he found her waiting in his bed. It wouldn't have been such an awful thing to find, had he not had a date with him whom he'd been planning to take there. Not to mention, she tried to kill the girl after with a screw driver. Apparently, she'd been stalking Tony for months. Whereas most women who were obsessed with him did it from a reasonable distance, she'd gotten a bit… too close for comfort.

How she got discharged, he still didn't know to this day. All he knew was that she'd snuck into Stark Industries and gone straight after the one thing he couldn't live without.

She'd gotten arrested promptly afterward, and Pepper was rushed to the hospital where Tony anxiously waited for news. That was the first time Tony Stark was ever really, really nervous.

The only other time happened around five years later, while he and Pepper were vacationing in Venice. It had come to his realization that he wasn't the only man in the world with his eye on Virginia Potts. Of course, he'd known that years beforehand, but he'd never really known what to do about it until now.

Oddly enough, it was Steve Rogers who helped him figure it out.

"You're in a bad mood," he'd observed one day when he'd stopped by Stark Tower to see if Tony had finished the changes to the shield yet.

"No duh, Captain Obvious," Tony had replied as he furiously pounded away at a sheet of metal with a sledge-hammer. Steve wasn't entirely sure what the blazes he was doing when he'd first walked it; the metal somewhat resembled a cracked, bent ball.

"Care to explain why, Tony _Snark?_"

Rolling his eyes at the term, Tony had dropped the hammer on the table and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Wouldn't you be in a shit mood if all you saw on a regular basis were assholes feeling up your girlfriend?"

Furrowing his brow, Steve had taken a few moments to answer. Tony and Pepper had been living together for nearly six and a half years. The solution to his "problem" seemed rather simple, in the Captain's eyes.

"Call me old-fashioned," he started, and Tony automatically scoffed.

"When _aren't_ you old-fashioned? You still can hardly work your iPhone."

Ignoring the snarky remark, Steve started again. "Call me old-fashioned, but why don't you just… marry her? Then no one in their right mind would try to pull anything on her."

"_Marry_ her?" Tony asked, his eyes widening slightly. "Are you out of your mind? I can't marry Pepper. She's… _Pepper._"

Steve's brow had furrowed with confusion at his response. "Well, what's that supposed to mean? You love her, don't you?"

"Yes," Tony had responded without hesitation, leaning back against the metal table.

"And you want her to be happy, don't you? Happy with _you?_"

"Well… yeah," Tony stated with a nod, and Steve made a gesture at him that was one of clear exasperation and obviously screamed "then what are you waiting for?"

"So, marry her," he urged, turning his back to search for his shield.

Normally Tony would have told him not to touch his stuff, but not then. He was too distracted with everything he'd just been told. He _did_ love Pepper, and he _did_ want to be with her. There was nothing he wanted more. So… what _was_ he waiting for?

He put it off for another solid six months while he contemplated everything from commitment to whether he would even know how to be a husband. But finally, the moment came.

Tony Stark had never been more nervous in his life.

Everything was perfect, the way he had planned it to be. She was standing out on the balcony of the rather enormous Italian mansion he owned, gazing out at the ocean as the waves crashed against the rocks below, the moon shining down on the water. She looked content, and utterly peaceful; for once in her life. He'd never seen her so… relaxed. Maybe it was because they were so far away that she couldn't be bothered with the affairs of Stark Industries. Maybe it was because he hadn't been called away to fight some villain with an attitude problem worse than his lately. But she just seemed…

…perfect.

"Pepper," he'd said, making his presence known to her. To his horror, his voice cracked from nerves, and he quickly cleared his throat as she turned. "Pepper," he'd said again, normally this time, "We… need to talk."

"Talk?" she'd asked, arching an elegant eyebrow and crossing her arms over the front of her silky silver top. "Talk about what?"

"Talk about you," he'd informed her, and she leaned back against the polished balcony railing.

"Me? Why are we talking about me?"

"Why wouldn't we talk about you? You're fascinating."

"Oh really?"

He didn't know what to say next. She was just standing there, her hair pulled back in its usual high ponytail. How could she make a simple _ponytail_ so gorgeous?

"Gorgeous," he said abruptly, seeing as it was the first thing that came to mind. "You're gorgeous. Stunning, beautiful, breathtaking, mindboggling…"

"Mindboggling?"

"…ly perfect," he quickly finished, and she thought she saw his cheeks turn red. A playful grin tugged at her lips at that, and she strolled forward toward him.

"Anthony Stark," she'd said, grabbing his blue-gray tie and pulling him a bit closer. "Are you blushing?"

"Uh… no?" he'd said hopefully, clearing his throat again. He had to get it out before he burned up from embarrassment at something else foolish he was bound to do or say that could ruin everything. "Look, Pep; as gorgeous as you are, that's not actually what I'm trying to get at here."

"No?" she asked, leaning forward to playfully nuzzle the tip of her nose against his goatee. "You know, if it's sex you're after, you really don't have to go to all this trouble…"

_Shit._ She was doing that little thing where she pressed kisses down his neck, and made it impossible to think straight. Did she have to do that _now?_

"Pep… er… Pepper," he finally managed to get out, certain his face was flushed now as he gently pushed her away and held her shoulders, looking down into her eyes. Those beautiful, sparkling blue eyes…

_Focus, moron! _

"Sex isn't what I want," he said quickly, his voice cracking again, and he nearly groaned with humiliation. A small frown pulled at her lips, and she furrowed her brow with clear confusion and, of all things, nervousness.

"Then what is it?" she asked, letting go of his tie and taking a small step back.

"I… well, you see, I… um… it's… commitment. Yeah, commitment! That's what I wanna talk about."

Frowning deeply, Pepper crossed her arms again, her cheeks and nose turning pink in that way he loved that made her freckles stand out. Although she wasn't blushing over something adorable he'd done or some sexual comment he'd made; she looked… angry?

"Tony Stark, I think I've been fairly lenient with you since we've been together," she snapped, and his brown eyes widened.

"Wait, what?"

"I put up with hundreds of women every day fawning all over you! I got shot for being your girlfriend, for crying out loud! And now you want to lecture _me_ about commitment? _Are you out of your mind?_"

"No!" he shouted in response, his frown now mirroring hers, "And you think that's bad? Try watching a dozen guys a minute stare at your ass! I've even caught some of them in the bathroom ja-!"

"Oh, God, don't go there. Don't go there!" she snapped, shuddering with disgust as a few loose strands of red hair fell into her eyes. "And who gives a shit about that? It's not like I've slept with them all! You've slept with half the female population of Los Angeles and New York city!"

"I have not!" he shouted back, and she laughed sarcastically.

"Oh, please! Yes you have! I of all people should know; _I took out your damn trash for twelve years!_"

"That was over six years ago! I've changed!" he yelled in response, and she resisted the urge to stomp on his foot.

"No, you haven't!" she screamed, "You're just as terrified of a committed relationship as you were back then! Frankly, I'm not going to stand for it!"

Whirling on her heel, she made to stalk off into the house, freezing in her tracks at what he shouted at her next.

"_Marry me!_"

It took a few moments before she slowly turned around to face him again, finding him breathing heavily from their dispute, his brown eyes flashing with an emotion she wasn't certain of.

"You've got to be kidding," she'd said shakily. "Tony, unless you're serious…"

"I _am,_ dammit! That's what I've tried to ask you since I came out here!"

She stared at him with disbelief, and a small, almost strangled sound escaped her when he fished around in his jacket pocket, pulling out a black velvet box and crouching down, pulling it open to show a diamond ring that had to have cost him a small fortune. It was placed on a simple, thin silver band, and the diamonds themselves were positioned in the shape of an elegant snowflake, with a large diamond in the middle and many smaller ones on the outside. It was _gorgeous_, and perfect. Pepper thought she might faint just looking at it.

"Virginia Potts," he said intensely when he was able to speak calmly again, staring up at her with the most serious expression she'd ever seen him pull. "Will you marry me?"

She was frozen. All she could do was stand there and gape at him. Tony swore it was the longest she'd ever been in a room with him without speaking to or scolding him. He'd actually made Pepper Potts _speechless._

"Unless, of course, you'd rather I go give this to some of that trash you took out?" he asked with an arched eyebrow, finally bringing her back to reality. Choking on a sob, she flung herself into his arms, making hysterical noises of shock and glee.

"Oh, shut up, you asshole!" she cried, crashing kiss after kiss to his lips. "Yes! Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!"

Chuckling with surprise at her reaction as he struggled to sit up again beneath her, he lifted the ring from the box and took her left hand, slipping the ring on her finger.

For once, Cap had been right, because _damn_, he loved the way it felt to see that ring on her finger. To know, once and for all, she really was his. Only his; no one else would ever have her but him.

Yet, out of both those times Tony Stark had been nervous, neither of them had quite compared to _this_ nervousness. It wasn't the kind of nervousness you got when you didn't know if you would ever see someone you loved more than anything again, and it wasn't the type you got when you were in the midst of fearing rejection. No, this nervousness was something entirely foreign to Anthony Edward Stark.

It was the nervousness that came with _waiting_. Not just any waiting, either; it was waiting for the result that would evidently shift his life entirely, forever. No looking back. He'd never be Tony Stark the genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist ever again.

He would be Tony Stark, the father.

He was growing more and more anxious with each passing second. His palms were sweating. His mouth was dry. He felt like he might throw up. How long did a damn pregnancy test _take?_ It felt like an endless eternity that he'd just been sitting there on their bed in the tower, waiting for her to return from the bathroom. It had to have been more than three minutes ago that she left. It had to have been at least an hour. Or two. Maybe even a day. He'd lost track the second he realized it was possible that, in nine months, he could be a father.

Never in his life before today had he considered it. It was likely because of how his father had treated him when he was a child. After being neglected, insulted and shunned for most of his life by his father, Tony had sworn he would never have kids. Maybe that's why he'd been so scared of a committed relationship. Maybe that's why it took him six years to ask Pepper to marry him. Eighteen, if you counted the years she'd worked for him, because a part of him knew he'd been in love with her back then, too. He'd always known. It had always just been Pepper who held a claim over his heart.

With marriage came children. He didn't _want_ kids. Not because he didn't like them; the very opposite was true. He loved kids. He loved it when they would come up to him on the street and get excited because he was Iron Man. He loved being their hero. He loved being someone who young people idolized for more than his looks and weapons history.

No, Tony not wanting kids had nothing to do with kids in general. It was _him._ He was terrified of being a father. He'd heard so many times that "the apple doesn't fall from the tree" and "oh, Tony, you're so much like your father." Well, if he was like Howard in the way he thought and acted, why should raising a child be any different? He didn't want to be his father. He didn't want a child to look back on their life and think, "Why didn't he love me? Why was he never proud? Didn't I do well?" No; he would hate himself for it, even more than he already secretly hated himself. Not to mention, he couldn't put the burden of raising a child solely on Pepper the way his father had on Maria.

Tony Stark wasn't just nervous. Tony Stark was absolutely terrified.

He figured Pepper wanted kids; she'd been hinting around at it since their honeymoon in Honolulu seven months ago. She'd even gone so far as to stop taking birth control. He'd never once considered that she might actually get pregnant, though. He figured because he didn't want kids so passionately, he'd never really be bestowed with one.

He guessed he was about to find out.

Finally, he found himself jumping as the sound of JARVIS' automated voice sounded above him. "Sir," he said, "Mrs. Stark requires your presence. She requested that you come quickly."

Taking a breath, he slowly looked up. "Did she say what the results were?"

"No, sir. I suspect she hasn't looked yet. She likely wants you to be there."

Getting to his feet, Tony slowly exited the bedroom and walked down the hall toward the bathroom. There was no point in arguing with a computer program, or making Pepper wait. That wasn't fair. Even if she wanted this as badly as he thought she did, he knew she had to be just as nervous and scared about it as he was.

Well, maybe not as much.

"Pep?" he asked as he stepped into the polished room, moving forward to place his hands on her hips. "Did you look?"

"No," she answered quietly, and he heard her take a harsh swallow of saliva. "Tony… what if it's positive? We haven't even really talked about it yet…"

Kissing her shoulder, he brought a hand up to run his fingers through her hair.

"It doesn't matter," he said quietly, and he knew he meant it. It really didn't matter. Even if he was going to be a father, he'd have to get over his petty fears. He loved Pepper more than anything, and he couldn't risk ever losing her. Not over this. "We'll work it out. Making things work is sort of our specialty."

A faint smile pulled at her lips at that, and she took a deep breath before lifting up the small pink and white stick lying on the counter before them. She was silent for a long moment before slowly lifting it up for him to see. Hesitating, he plucked it from her fingers and brought his eyes down to look at the results. A lump caught in his throat.

"Positive," she announced as he read it, and he nodded slowly.

"I'm gonna be a dad?"

"Looks like it."

"You're going to be a mom?"

"Evidently so."

"You… really want this?"

Pepper was quiet for a while before she answered, her voice soft yet ringing with certainty. "Yes, Tony," she stated, touching his arm, "I do."

He swallowed the growing lump in his throat. "We're going to be parents?"

"Mmhm."

Not speaking, he took a long time before he finally just ended up repeating his first question yet again as his head swam.

"I'm gonna be a dad?"

"_Yes, Tony._"

He didn't say anything. He didn't say anything for so long that Pepper was beginning to get scared. Finally, a soft mixture of a groan and a whimper escaped him as he muttered, "_Diapers…_"

Then he promptly passed out cold on the tile floor.


	2. All I Want For Christmas

To Tony's surprise, finding out Pepper was pregnant wasn't the most difficult part of this whole ordeal. Despite that he was still struggling internally with the idea of becoming a father, he knew he wasn't the only person who would be in this baby's life.

How were they going to tell everyone? That was the thought most often bouncing around in Anthony's head. Why was it that he was a super genius who could invent automated suits of armor, but he couldn't even come up with a good plan to tell everyone that he and Pepper were having a baby?

Telling them about the engagement had been easy. For the most part, Steve had already known. Bruce, from the amount of time he spent at Stark Tower, figured it was only a matter of time. Clint and Natasha were as placid as usual, and Rhodey had referred to them in his head as an old married couple for over ten years.

Thor had been the only one who hadn't seen it coming. That was probably due to the lack of time he really spent with the rest of the Avengers, being stuck in Asgard most often. He claimed with enthusiasm that, "This calls for immense celebration!" to which Tony replied, "Yeah, Goldilocks; that's called the wedding."

This time, however, was a much different scenario. No one could have foreseen that the Starks would be having children any time soon, solely for the reason that not a single one of them could picture Tony as a father any more than he could picture _himself_ as one. Pepper, as efficient as ever, had proposed the solution about a week after the doctor's appointment that had confirmed the results of the pregnancy test.

"The SHIELD Christmas party is next week," she reminded him casually as she flipped through her newly acquired copy of "What to Expect When You're Expecting", and Tony raised an eyebrow, glancing up from his laptop.

"You actually want to go?" he asked, and it was almost a groan. The two had always skipped out of Fury's fun-filled evening, in favor of sitting at home and watching Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Tony would never admit it, but it was one of his favorites. Maybe it was because he'd never really had much of a childhood, and was just getting caught up now.

"Well, I was thinking," she explained to him as she turned the page of her book, "that it would be a good time to tell everyone the news."

Freezing, Tony's eyes widened. "You're kidding. Please tell me you're kidding. You want to tell everyone at SHIELD about the baby?"

"They're bound to find out eventually, Tony," she reminded him gently, and he scoffed.

"I thought it was supposed to be bad luck to tell too many people about the baby or something?"

"Since when are you superstitious?" she asked, and Tony shifted warily, laying a hand over her still reasonably flat stomach.

"I'm not," he stated, giving a shake of his head. "But this is… different, Pepper. It's not stepping on a crack or walking under a ladder… it's… _our baby_. Excuse me for not wanting to take any chances."

Her expression softening, Pepper put her book aside and moved closer to the philanthropist, looping her arms around him and sighing when he did the same in return after setting his laptop aside.

"It will be fine, Tony," she assured him, closing her eyes when he kissed her shoulder. "You worry too much…"

"You're all I have," he reminded her quietly. "If anything happens to the baby… there's a chance I might lose you, too. I'm _not_ about to let that happen."

Shifting in his arms, she pressed her forehead against his, offering him a small, reminiscent smile. "You're all I have too, you know," she whispered, instantly feeling him relax a bit, "and I don't plan on leaving you alone. For one, you couldn't function without me."

Laughing dryly, Tony shook his head and pressed a small kiss to her lips, brushing her red hair over her shoulder. "For more reasons than one," he stated, finally releasing a sigh of defeat. "Fine, we'll go to the dumb party. But you'd better have a better plan than just announcing it out of the blue over eggnog."

"Alcohol free eggnog," she reminded him, and he groaned.

Of course, she'd insisted that if she wasn't allowed to drink anymore, neither was he.

It was killing him.

… . … . … . … . … . … . … . … . … . … . … . …

"This is ridiculous. I _look_ ridiculous. _I don't do ridiculous!_"

Rolling her eyes, Pepper adjusted the fake beard on Tony's face, shaking her head with a grin. "Oh, stop you're whining. Do you know how hard it was to convince Steve to let you be Santa without giving away our surprise? Damn near impossible. Besides; you make a very sexy Saint Nick."

Snorting, Tony shook his head as he looked in the full length mirror.

"There's no such thing as a sexy Saint Nick," he grumbled, examining his overstuffed red jacket and matching hat with a puff-ball. "I'm fat, grumpy, and my beard looks like it belongs on the set of _Harry Potter_."

"Huh," Pepper said, tilting her head. "I had no idea that mirror let people see themselves in twenty years. Maybe this _is_ the set of _Harry Potter_."

Swatting her behind lightly at that, Tony smirked and shook his head when she squeaked. She'd managed to get her hands on an elf costume, complete with a green and red skirt, matching top and green fishnet stockings. Maybe this wasn't a _completely_ awful idea…

"Oh, shut up," he said with a shake of his head. "We weren't all so lucky as to get to be sexy elves. Someone should have made you dress up as Mrs. Clause."

Grinning, she leaned over and kissed the small patch of his face that she could see behind the beard and small glasses. "We both know you'd rather see me as a sexy elf than an old woman. Don't complain, Mr. Stark."

"Don't gloat, Mrs. Stark."

Pepper found herself blushing at that, and she shook her head. She wasn't sure she'd ever get used to people calling her "Mrs. Stark", no matter how many times she heard it at work in the run of a day.

"I wasn't gloating," she insisted with a shake of her head, adjusting her red curls beneath the pointy green hat. "Come on, Santa; there are kids waiting for you."

Tony resisted the strong urge to groan. He usually liked kids, but he wasn't sure he could stand sitting there in this sweltering costume listening to kid after kid ask for impossibly huge gifts that they probably wouldn't really get. It made him feel bad.

"Fine, fine…" he muttered, following her out of the dressing room and into the main dining hall. Fury had rented out one of New York's smaller hotel's ballroom, so that they wouldn't all be ambushed by the press while they were there. Nothing ruined Christmas faster than a few nosy reporters and their "motherfucking cameras."

Flopping himself down in the rather large red and gold throne with holly wrapped around the armrests, Tony forced a smile when there were squeals of excitement and children quite literally ambushed him.

"Form a line!" Pepper called over the noise in that voice of authority Tony knew all too well. "Santa can only talk to one of you at a time."

There was a fair amount of pushing and shoving for who would get to be first, and Tony sighed before using what he thought had to be the most ridiculous voice he'd ever used. It was too deep, and Pepper had to restrain herself from bursting into laughter.

"Ho ho- ermm… Ho, ho, ho!"

The children all froze when he spoke, and Tony smirked slightly. Well, damn. This Santa guy could have an army of children if he wanted one, from the way they listened when he spoke… they'd better not tell Loki.

"I only give presents to good boys and girls," he reminded them. "So be nice and line up. You first," he stated, pointing to a boy with dark hair.

"Awesome!" the boy cried as he hurried forward and plopped himself down on Tony's lap. He took no time in informing him of exactly what he wanted. "Santa, I've been real good this year, so I want a race car, swimming goggles, an iPod touch, battle robots, a motorboat…"

Tony ended up tuning him out. The kid seemed to go on and on and on, and the gifts only kept getting more and more outrageous.

"…and a castle with man-eating crocodiles, and a dinosaur skeleton, and…!"

"Okay, I think that's enough," Pepper finally said, trying to be cheerful, but it was clear to most that she was getting annoyed. "Save some presents for the other children."

Scooting him off Tony's lap, she proceeded to gesture the next child up, a little girl with blonde pigtails in a red frilly dress. She wasn't as bad as the last child; all she asked for was a Rapunzel Barbie, some new dressed, and tickets to a Taylor Swift concert. What kind of a five year old wanted to go to a concert…?

It grew rather repetitive. Dolls for one girl, trucks for the next boy, lip gloss that tasted like bubble-gum for a brown-haired girl, an Iron Man action figure for the last boy.

After nearly an hour of greedy children, they finally reached the last child. She was a little red-haired girl with freckles, around four years old. She cautiously approached Tony and got up on his lap with Pepper's help, hiding behind her curls.

"What's your name, little girl?" Tony asked, and her cheeks turned red.

"Ana…" she said quietly, and Tony raised an eyebrow. Thus far, she was the only child not to launch straight into what she wanted.

"Ana, huh? That's certainly a pretty name."

Nodding, she avoided his gaze a bit nervously, whispering, "Anastasia."

"Don't be shy, sweetheart," Pepper encouraged her, bending down so she was closer to the little girl's eye-level. "Just tell Santa what you want him to bring you for Christmas."

The little girl bit her lip, and she shifted in Tony's lap. "All I wants is for my daddy to comes home."

Sympathy flooded through both Tony and Pepper, and Tony hesitantly patted the small girl's back in a comforting fashion.

"Where's your daddy?"

"I no know," she said with a shake of her head that made her curls bounce, and Pepper furrowed her brow.

"You don't know?"

"Uh-uh," sniffling, she wiped at her eyes. "He comed here befores, but he no come home to see me an' my mommy agains."

"What was his name?" Tony asked, and she looked up at him with big watery eyes.

Eyes Tony was slightly mortified to recognize.

"Phil," she said with a lisp, and Pepper's eyes widened, but Tony wasn't surprised. He'd guessed the second she met his gaze whose daughter she was. It would be hard to miss.

"Phil Coulson?" he asked, and she nodded again.

"I misses my daddy. I wants him back. That all I wants for Christmas, so me an' my mommy can be happy agains… her cries a lot, and that make me sad."

All hesitation gone, Tony wrapped his arms around the small girl, wiping away her little tears with his thumb as she leaned in and hugged him in return.

"I'll do my best," he assured her, and she gave him a watery smile.

"Thank you, Santa," she said with a sniffle as she wiped away her tears before wiggling down from his lap and hurrying over to rejoin a tall red-haired who Tony assumed must have been the cellist they'd heard about a few times. Phil Coulson had led an even more private life than any of them realized. Either that, or Tony just hadn't paid close enough attention…

"So, that's Phil's daughter…" Pepper said quietly, remaining where she was kneeling beside his chair, and Tony nodded, determination shining in his eyes.

"She didn't ask for a single thing but to have her father back," he stated, and Pepper nodded, looking up at him with confusion.

"Tony… there's nothing you can do to make that happen. He's gone…"

"That doesn't mean she has to be miserable on Christmas," he stated, shaking his head. "I want every cent the company made this month going to her and her mother so they can get by without Phil."

"Tony, I don't know if we can do that…"

"It's my company!" he snapped, and for once Pepper didn't have the heart to remind him that it was technically hers now. "My company, my money; if I want to spend it on something unselfish for once, I sure as hell can."

Pepper just nodded, but he wasn't finished.

"Toys; that little girl is going to wake up to the most massive load of toys, books, dolls; anything she wants on Christmas morning. Make it happen."

"We can do that," she assured him, and he exhaled a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. Pepper recognized that look all too well; it was his guilty look.

"Tony…" she whispered quietly, gently grabbing his knee and squeezing it. "I know what you're thinking; don't. Don't think that way. What happened to Phil wasn't your fault. There was nothing you could have done."

"Yes, there was," he insisted, and his voice broke with something close to pain. "I could have stopped that Asgardian bastard before he killed him. I could have done more, Pepper, but I _didn't._"

"You can't put the blame on yourself," she said firmly, shaking her head. "Tony, you couldn't control what happened, no matter how much you wish you could have. You weren't there when it happened because you weren't meant to be. You didn't stop Loki sooner because you weren't meant to. Everything happens for a reason… sometimes the things that happen are awful, but we can't change them. If helping this little girl and making her Christmas perfect is your way of coping… then we'll do it. We'll do anything you want. Okay?"

Her voice remained calm and soothing, as it always did when he was in distress these days, and he gave a meek nod of his head.

"Yeah… yeah, okay."

"Good."

Smiling softly up at him, she got to her feet and gave him a small, almost excited grin. "Now, don't tell me you went and forgot the entire reason you're wearing that costume tonight…"

His eyes widening at her words, Tony released a small, "oof!" when she dropped into his lap, his arms going around her waist out of habit as she spoke loudly over the buzz of the crowd, causing the noise to die down and all eyes to fall upon the two of them.

"_Well,_ Santa, since you asked, there _are_ a few things I'd like for Christmas."

Tony blinked rapidly for a moment, getting himself together before responding. "Oh? And what would that be?"

"Well, we should probably start at the top of the list," she said with a shrug, grinning when she felt the eyes on her back. "First off, I'm going to need clothes. Small clothes."

"Well, you do seem rather petite…" he said in response, and the crowd snickered a bit.

"Oh, not for _me,_ Santa," she objected, and everyone fell silent again with curiosity. What was Pepper Stark on about?

"No?" Tony asked, and she shook her head.

"I'm also going to need food. But nothing to strong, or too hard to chew."

Tony nodded, and she continued.

"Toys are important, too. So are a few bottles, paint for the room, and… a crib."

There was a distinct sound of glass smashing when she finished, and Pepper and Tony both looked up to see the Avengers gaping at them with wide eyes. Bruce had dropped his glass of eggnog, and his mouth was agape with shock, his glasses sliding down his nose. Natasha was just gawking at them with disbelief, Clint was shaking her as if it would bring her back to reality, and Steve simply raised a hand and pointed at Pepper, crying the first thing that came to his mind.

"_I knew they were fonduing!_"

Hysterical laughter broke out throughout the crowd, and Pepper's cheeks turned pink as several people rushed up to congratulate the two of them. Nick Fury was the only one who remained behind, adding extra alcohol to his eggnog, muttering to himself, "_Another_ Stark? Oh hell no…"


End file.
